


The Blade of Marmora Will Be With You

by Leonawriter



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Blade of Marmora Keith, Gen, Keith attempting to keep secrets, blade of marmora
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-21 22:11:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9569015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: When Ulaz said those words to Shiro, they were meant to be taken literally. As time goes on, however, Keith finds being the only Galra - even one disguised as a human - in a group dedicated to taking out the Galran Empire, with two of the last Alteans in existence on board, a bit more difficult than he'd planned.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Started off as 'oh, I can just do this in short scenes' and then the next thing I know I'm realising I'm going to need chapters for this. Character tags will be added as relevant.

The last thing Shiro knew before blacking out was pure panic, as well as frustration and fear at being restrained, seeing these people in masks and holding implements and being unable to not see purple even though he knew that their faces were pink, that of the voices he was hearing, some were even  _familiar_ , but no one was listening to him.

No one was taking him  _seriously._

There was a needle in his (human, organic) arm, and darkness enveloped him once again, despite his efforts to resist.

...

The first thing he knew when waking up once more, was that he wasn't bound. 

This was always a good thing, his mind supplied, although that didn't necessarily mean that he was in a good situation. He tried to follow the thought through, but the details eluded him.

After that, everything filtered through bit by bit - he could feel wind, on his face. There was sunlight shining on his face, not starlight. He was  _warm._

He opened his eyes, to see someone looking back. Familiar black hair, familiar red and yellow jacket. Familiar look of worry on his face. 

_Keith._

...

"It's good to have you back," Keith's saying.

They're stood outside, watching the sun rise, although he's having a hard time getting Keith to look him in the eye, for some reason. It almost reminds him of the time when he'd caught a hot-headeded kid being lectured  _again_ for starting a fistfight.

"It's good to be back."

He smiles for a moment, at the fact that he's back on Earth, that he's  _home_ , before realising that nothing was ever as simple as that. Earth was in danger. Imminent danger. 

Keith's hand on his shoulder grounded him, however, to the here and now.

"What... happened, out there?" It almost looked as though Keith's eyes were searching for as many answers as he wished he had to give. "I had no idea where you were for so long, and then..."

"I wish I could tell you," he sighs out. He notices Keith blink at him from the corner of his eye, but he carries on. "But, my head's still pretty scrambled. There was an... alien ship, somehow I escaped. It's all a blur still."

Trying to think of anything more decisive than that comes up with an unhelpful and worrying blank in his memory. Keith, he notices, is now looking away, face scrunched up in a look of angry frustration he'd seen more than a few times before, but he hadn't a clue what the context would be in  _this_ situation. 

"Right. Of course."

Then again, he  _had_ missed a good year of the kid's life. It could be anything. Or it could be nothing at all. Though knowing Keith, it was probably  _something_. 

"How did you know to find me, anyway?"

Keith sighs, and reaches around to bring out the knife that Shiro now remembers he's always carried with him - but now, like only a few other times he can remember, the hilt is uncovered, and the glowing symbol is clearly visible. 

A symbol that Shiro  _remembers_ somehow.

He's seen one exactly like that, somewhere, at some point, before. 

A knife or blade like that, which  _hadn't been on Earth._

"I was told someone would be crashing to Earth in a Galran pod, I just didn't know it'd be  _you_ ,"Keith's saying. "Do you... recognise this?" 

He stares at it for a few moments longer, as though burning the symbol and the blade into his mind will help. Hoping it might trigger something off. And maybe it does, because the next thing he knows-

"The Blade of Marmora will be with you."

He shakes his head, trying to chase down the memory that the words come with, but everything is still a mess - he knows that they come with the escape, he knows that they're linked to how he was able to get into a pod in the first place. He knows that they are, somehow, linked to a blade just like the one Keith is holding right now.

He also knows that if someone had been in the position to do all of that, then they could not have been another prisoner - they had to have been a  _Galra._

Keith, meanwhile, is nodding, looking as though he's a lot more relaxed.

"Ulaz sent me a communication when he set the plan in motion to spring you free. He told me a pod would be coming to Earth, and to help them. I'm just happy it turned out to be  _you_."

_Ulaz. That's his name - the Galra who helped me. But then - this-_

"But that doesn't make sense. Keith, I've known you for  _years._ How could you possibly be in contact with aliens, let alone-

_The ones who did this to me._

But if Keith and his memories were correct, then the Blade of Marmora - or whoever they were - hadn't done this to him at all. They'd  _helped_ him. 

His head hurt.

"I... that's because I came to Earth not long before that. I'm not human, Shiro. But I  _promise,_ I'm not like them. The Blade and I - we're  _nothing_ like the Empire. I was sent to Earth as part of a mission. To stop the Empire from gaining even  _more_ power." 

_Sent on a mission? But we first met when you were thirteen!_

He opened his mouth to protest, because that  _couldn't_ be right, but Keith's expression hardened suddenly for just a moment, and at the sight, he found that there was nothing he could say anymore.

"What  _kind_ of mission?"

Keith bit his lip, looking back at the run down shack everyone had stayed at for the night. He seemed torn between something, before finally giving in with a sigh and turning back to face Shiro.

"You should probably come look at this."

...

_"See, Kethe? This is how you thrust. And this, the parry. Remember, you will always need to be able to both attack and defend yourself with your blade in both its short and long forms. Adjust for range. Again - show me how you do this again."_

_He did so. Again, and again. Until his arms ached, and his legs were sore. Until he could defend himself - or attack - when woken up and still only half asleep._

_The Blade relied on vigilance and not letting anyone be left without the skills to stay alive at least until they could get out, get to safety, get free. Almost everyone was mission-ready - even the ones who would prefer not to._

_Even the children._

_It was war, after all. No one could beg for mercy or plead with the Empire to let them be. Some had even learned this firsthand. Like Kethe had, with his mother taken from him, and his father often gone on infiltration, hardly ever present._

_"Victory," Antok told him as they worked on his letters, forming the shapes with a brush. It's an old tradition, putting down words without using technology, but it's also one that the Blade insisted on keeping alive. "It is something that as fighters, we strive for. But at the same time, we must also pick and choose what we deem a victory. Is it our blade in another, the fact that they are defeated? Or is it knowing that you are safe? Victory takes many forms."_

_He nods and_ _listens, just as he has listened to the stories of the Blades that have come back from their own missions, with their own tales of victory and near-discovery and defeat._

_Antok ruffles his head-fur and Kethe wrinkles his nose, rolling out of the way - he isn't a child anymore. He's almost ready for his first mission. That's what they keep telling him, at least._

_Some of his yearmates have already gone - onto ships, into the military, into mundane, boring things such as accountancy and shopkeeping. Some more exciting than others. All are dangerous, all live in fear of discovery._

_The Blade of Marmora only survives because no one knows where it is, or when it will strike, or even that it exists at all._

_..._

_"Come."_

_He looks up, only to see the face of Kolivan their leader, and rises to follow, silently but with his fur standing on end due to nerves._

_His anticipation of a mission is rewarded when he is lead into a room with several others, all looking deadly serious. Maps are strewn on the table's surface, and the walls are covered in symbols that he doesn't recognise at all._

_"Kethe. You have been chosen for a mission of extreme importance. And it is one that, at the current moment, you alone can accomplish."_

_He hadn't understood until they had explained just how true that was._

_A Lion of Voltron - found. On a watery planet that was far, far too close to where the next rounds of the Empire's patrols would take them. A few more days, not even a week, and it would be lost._

_"No Lion of Voltron must be allowed into the Empire's hands." He knew that as well as any. "It must be retrieved, undetected, and taken far enough away that it will be safe. You must ensure that it remains that way. No matter how long that takes."_

_Not all of them had the gift of being able to manipulate quintessence in the ways of the druids - Kethe, however, despite his inability at the art of infiltration himself, had always been able to create a glamour, blending in with relative ease._

_...._

_He had gone with another Blade, both of them in full armour and their helmets covering their faces. Kethe knew who they were despite that, though, just as they knew who he was. The helmets were to protect them from being recognised by the Empire, not from each other._

_Their ship was small enough and unremarkable enough to go unquestioned through space, but big enough that, should the need arise, it could carry the Lion to it and Kethe's final destination with no problems._

_On reaching the Lion itself, however, Kethe was quick to realise just how difficult getting the thing onboard might be, with the Lion unresponsive and its particle barrier unrelenting and unflinchingly unhelpful, making it fractionally bigger than the space their equations from a distance had told them that they would need._

_Unless they found a way around this, they'd be stuck._

_After two days stuck on the ball of water getting increasingly frustrated, with only another day until the next patrol was due to arrive and find all three of them if they didn't make a move quickly, Kethe rested his head against the glowing blue particle barrier, fists on either side._

_"I grew up with stories, you know. Stories about Voltron. It always ended with, 'and then Voltron came along and saved the day', or something like that. But if we don't move, then... none of that can come true. The Empire is looking. Not just for us, but for the Lions. They've always been looking. If we... if we don't move, they'll find us. They'll find you. I don't know why you won't let either of us in - maybe you just don't like us or something. But we aren't trying to take you. We're the good guys." He sighed. Pushed himself away. "I just - I was sent here to make sure you were kept safe, all right? I'll... we'll do what we can."_

_He's a few paces away when he hears the sound of machinery moving, and he turns back to the Lion in astonishment. The mouth had opened, allowing entry to the ship. Kethe wasted no time in racing aboard, just in case the Lion might decide to change its mind._

_What he wasn't expecting was to be hit by a sudden wave of lethargy and ease after feeling the hours go by tick by tick, a presence almost playfully curious at the edge of his mind, filled with ideas and thoughts and emotions._

_You're small? Small and purple and young!_

_He wasn't that small, and he wasn't that young, and he was affronted by the realisation that this was what the Lion thought of him, but there wasn't any time to argue the matter._

_You'll do for now, was what he had a feeling the Lion was trying to impart. We're no match but at least your feet reach the pedals._

_He spent most of the week-long journey it took to find a decent planet to land on at odds with the energetic yet laid back Lion he was, like it or not, sharing space with, and who complained non-stop when he chose somewhere hot and dry to land, because at least it was somewhere the locals weren't as likely to come looking._

_He felt warmth and regret and longing from her when he left to get his bearings on the strange planet they'd chosen. Loneliness. And something else._

_He painted the blue lions on the walls of the cave as he found his way out, leaving himself something to remember the place by, and beginning to regret having landed somewhere so hot himself, with his fur sticking to his skin in uncomfortable clumps,_ _the yellow sun too bright._

_..._

_"I come back after two years and there's been a- a cave in? Is this what this is? Or is it just you trying to keep me out? Do you want me to feel grateful that because I can't get in, no one else can either? Because. I'm pretty sure that's. Not. How. This. Works."_

_He looks human, now. That's what they're called - humans. Thin, furless skin that burns easily, with no claws to speak of. The Garrison cadet uniform he's wearing sticks to his back as he kicks one of the rocks and tries to resist the urge to scream, tears already leaking out of his eyes._

_He had already known upon leaving the Blade that he was unlikely to be able to return. His mission was to ensure that the Blue Lion remained safe. That was all. A mission that could well last longer than his own lifetime._

_But now, he was trapped._

_Earth... didn't_ _have interstellar travel. Not truly. Their shuttles and space stations were primitive, and he knew that if the Empire arrived, it would be like trying to fight blasters with wooden sticks._

_Still, though._

_The mission stood. He still stood. Stayed - not that he had any choice, now._

_He took photographs of the area, made sure that he knew where to go back to if he needed to in the future, and left._

_..._

_He found out because there was a Garrison-wide assembly dedicated to mourning the loss of the Kerberos crew. He found himself staring blankly at the images displayed on the screen at the front of the auditorium, breath coming in quick and fast, feeling all of a sudden as though he needed to run, or find a better hiding place, he wasn't sure which._

_He cornered Iverson while all of the other cadets were leaving, and the man put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder that Kethe - Keith, now, it had been Keith for over three years, now - hardly felt._

_"I understand how hard this must be, kid. Shiro meant a lot to us all."_

_He shakes his head, in an attempt to free it of the daze that it had gotten into. To make some semblance of sense of things._

_He needed to know what happened - what had really happened._

_"Are you sure it was pilot error? Absolutely sure?"_

_He thinks that his hands are shaking._

_"We received the reports from the crew sent to investigate when we hadn't heard anything back. It happens to the best of us."_

_His head, buzzing. He felt his cheeks flush. Eyes hard and full of dread, he pushed past Iverson on his way back to his dorm, and waited three painful days before sending out a transmission asking for a status report from the Blade, with an addendum that the security of his mission was in a potential compromise._

_It was. If the Empire was what had happened to Shiro, then Earth didn't have much time until the Empire's spread came this far out. And if that happened - then rock slide or no, Blue would be in danger._

_The report came two weeks later, and a day after that, he found himself kicked out of the Garrison for a 'discipline issue' - for trying to call bullshit on the fact that they were covering up something that meant everyones' lives were in danger._

_..._

"Thank you. For trusting me."

Shiro speaks quietly, just before they're about to go back in to meet with the others again and see whatever it was that Keith had been working on that he apparently feels ready to share.

The kid - young man, now; more than that,  _alien_ , possibly  _Galra_ young man - huffs, with a tense smile, but at least it's an honest one. There is, he's realising, a lot that's changed, and a lot to get used to.

But he can. He  _wants_ to. 

"Heh. I could say the same to you."

He just shakes his head and carries on, thinking to himself about how young Keith had been when they'd first met, and his mixed feelings on the matter of a kid as young as that thinking in terms of  _missions_ and  _war_ at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From the official stats, 'The Blue Lion is the friendliest of the Lions and most accepting of pilots.' 
> 
> Also, the fact remains that they really don't make a good match - like Lance, Blue emanates feelings of being relaxed and/or energetic when Keith would prefer to feel tense and/or prefer to focus on just one thing, thank you. Keith only got in because he pretty much asked, plain and simple. But Blue also sees him as a kid - he's 17 when the series starts, and this whole set of flashbacks are about four years ago.
> 
> Kethe was basically a thirteen year old stringbean covered in fluff. YOU try not mothering that kid.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otherwise known as: how many times can Keith's stress levels rise in one chapter? Not to mention, one day?

It was bad enough that Keith had gone into the cave system wondering just how they'd actually get  _at_ Blue anyway, only to have the floor open up and deposit them neatly right on top of the Lion. 

Two years of feeling stuck and helpless on this planet, all of the days he'd had to wait back on the planet he'd found her on in the first place, and everything he'd had to put up with both in transit and while trapped here, and  _Lance_ is the one who she opens up to the moment he arrives.

Of course she does. Of  _course_. 

He wouldn't mind so much if it'd been anyone who could actually fly her properly instead of giving off a good impression of a green recruit who'd never been able to pass trials  _or_ test simulations.

No, he could handle all of that. He didn't have to  _like_ it, but he could handle it.

What made things go from bad to worse was knowing that, apparently, there was a battleship heading right their way. And he might have shown them all where the Blue Lion was, he might have inadvertently made it so that Lance could end up in the pilot's seat - though that wasn't entirely his fault, he'd place the rest of the blame of that on Blue, thank you - he did  _not_ want the Empire, or  _anyone else_ for that matter, to know that Blue had been found.

"Well, if this thing's the weapon they're looking for," he realised that Hunk was now saying, "why don't we just like, I don't know, give it to them? Maybe they'll leave us alone."

Keith was  _that_ close to seeing red, 'No offence, Lion', be damned, and it was only Shiro's free arm resting on his shoulder for a moment that stopped him from saying something he'd regret.

"You don't understand. These monsters - the _Empire_ - spreads like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is  _dead_."

Silence, as everyone stared at Hunk. 

"Shiro's right," Keith added, feeling the need to drive the point home, just so they didn't forget, "if they take the Blue Lion, then they won't just stop there. They'll take  _everything._ And we'd have one less weapon to  _fight with._ "

He was the first to look out through the view screen again, noting that Lance's hands were gripping Blue's controls a bit tighter than before.

 _Good,_ he couldn't help but think.  _Maybe now he'll start taking this seriously. Because no matter what he'd like to think, this isn't just some big game._

_..._

Stepping out of Blue's mouth for the second time in his life wasn't so bad, really. The planet was Earth-like, but then, he'd sort of grown used to Earth. And at least it wasn't  _hot_ \- it was warm, but not uncomfortably so.

For a moment, he appreciated the view and the feel of the wind in his hair.

 _I could tell them,_ he considered.  _After all, it's just the five of us out here, and this might be Blue's 'home', but I don't see anyone else around. And that castle seems really old, and really abandoned._

He opened his mouth, but then closed it again. 

What would he even say? How did you even go about that sort of conversation? At least he had some common ground with Shiro, who already knew about the Blade even if he needed some reminding to jog the memories. But as for the others...

They'd just been attacked and chased by a Galran battleship. He didn't think they'd exactly appreciate finding out that he was essentially one of the  _bad guys_ in this story, especially when they didn't have any other frame of reference.

Being pretty much the only one who didn't freak out whenever Blue moved on her own because he knew more or less what to expect, he hid a sigh in between everyone else's expressions of worry.

 _Maybe later_ , came the inevitable thought, as they walked into the castle, its clean lines pristine, white architecture both reminding him of something in the same way of having a word on the tip of his tongue but just not being able to think what it was, while also putting him on edge, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

...

"How do you have the Blue Lion? What happened to its Paladin?" 

Keith found himself backing away, more and more things slotting into place as  _familiar_. And - especially given the treatment Lance, who was relatively  _harmless_ , was getting - more and more  _concerning_. 

"I am Princess Allura of planet Altea." 

_No._

That couldn't be  _possible -_ Altea had been destroyed, not just centuries but  _millennia_ ago. 

"I've got to find out how long I've been asleep."

But with everything they said, everything they did - it just seemed like something from the old myths and legends. Things that the Blade had only  _barely_ managed to keep remembered. That the Empire had tried its best to obliterate otherwise.

"Planet Altea, and all of the planets in our solar system, have been destroyed," the Princess was now saying. 

_They did that._

_No, not they._

_We._

_We did that - the Galrans, of ten thousand years ago. We killed her people. Under Zarkon._

What he'd only warned Lance and the others about had already happened to her - and Coran, too.

His mouth dry, 'maybe later' became a harder prospect to handle.

...

With every step, he was being torn in two between the need to report back, to explain everything that was going on, to tell everyone  _yeah, sorry, got to go - I delivered Blue to where she was apparently supposed to be, but I've got things to do, places to go, you know how it is_ and the basic fact that he couldn't just leave like that.

He couldn't leave Shiro, who'd put his trust in him since that conversation just  _hours_ ago, and not just then but before, too. And if he left, then they'd be down one more pair of hands to fight with and one less head to get out of this situation.

But the thing was, he wouldn't even have been that stressed if it weren't for one thing -  _Allura had assigned him a Lion_. 

Him. Keith. The one out of the whole group who wasn't either Human  _or_ Altean. Who was keeping secrets. 

 _You're probably going to regret this,_ he'd wanted to say as she'd pushed the hologram of the Red Lion over in his direction. But he didn't. Not only because any mention of incompatibility when the princess was supposedly connected to the Lions herself, probably wouldn't go down well - they'd ask questions. Questions he wasn't ready to answer. But they hadn't had  _time_.

So he'd just smiled, tried not to look like he wasn't feeling queasy, and tried to accept the actual praise from the Altean who was now his new commanding officer.

Right now, all of the others were gone - off to find the Green and Yellow Lions. And Allura was back in that room, focusing on keeping those wormholes active. 

Keith was pacing outside, half because he just couldn't stay still when all there was for him to do was  _wait_ , and half because he needed the  _air_. Every minute that passed, was another minute he could have been using to communicate back to the Blade, if he thought that he'd be able to without being caught out. 

"Got a case of the nerves, hm?"

He jumped, not having noticed Coran's presence until the man had spoken. 

"Uh. Yeah."

That was one way of putting it. 

"Well, if you think about it, either everyone's going to come back safely, we find the Red Lion for you, and we form Voltron, or we're all doomed. So, there's a fifty-fifty chance of survival. Rather good odds, considering the state of things."

"Great," Keith sighed. "You know, I don't think that was entirely helpful. But thanks anyway."

Coran put a hand on his shoulder before heading back inside, probably to run more calculations or diagnostics.

...

 _Minor change of plans_ , Shiro had said, before splitting off with Pidge.  _I'm trusting you with this,_ he'd said. 

But it wasn't as though any of the  _others_ so far had to deal with a Lion that'd let them figure out where it was only to  _completely ignore them_. And the longer he took trying to earn Red's trust, the longer it'd be before he could get back to the others.

He knocked on the particle barrier again, twice, like Lance had with Blue -  _nothing_. He groaned, letting his hands fall down limply, his head dropping with a static  _thump_ against the barrier instead.

"Look, is this because of - you know? Some kind of trust issue, here? You see into my  _head_ , you tell me where to go, and then you see me and don't like the  _look of me?_ Because that _isn't cool_." Still silence. Still no sign of movement. "Or is this some kind of test? Are you testing me? Because I'm saying now - I'm  _not leaving._ Not without you."

The team needed him in Red. The Blade had told him - _no Lion of Voltron can be allowed into the Empire's hands._ The universe  _in general_ needed Voltron, full stop.

The hangar door slid open, and he adjusted his stance, summoning his shield when the drones started to fire on him, and activating his bayard to attack the moment he had a moment to spare.

Two knocked out, one sliced clean in half. Still more coming through, and he was out of practice with both the sword _and_ the weight of the armour, and the grip wasn't what he was used to, ending up with him on the floor winded.

 _They won't stop coming,_ he realised.  _Just like they say - victory or death. Well, let's see about that._

In the heat of the moment, what he'd thought had been  _Well, at least no one's going to survive this to think too hard on how Galra are supposed to be the only ones capable of using their tech and control panels._

Moments later, when he was hanging on for dear life and knowing that he was way too far out for his armour's jetpack to be of any use, not to mention the masses of flying debris, he realised that maybe  _no one surviving this_ might also mean  _him_.

...

Red catching him in her mouth was at the same time the most terrifying and most relieving thing he'd ever experienced.

Feeling the Lion touch his mind was also the first moment he realised that maybe being an actual Paladin - rather than just a glorified passenger - might not be all that bad after all.

...

Never let it be said that having flown in and had two Lions in his head at various points made him any better than anyone else on this team at figuring out what they were supposed to do. 

He outright said as much later that night, to Shiro - just in case he was under any impression he had more of an idea than anyone else. He  _didn't._ Voltron was supposed to be some  _legend_ , not- not  _real_. 

Though through all that, their new leader was smiling, watching him rant on before sitting heavily on Shiro's bed as the most comfortable thing in the room, while Shiro himself stood, arms crossed, leaning against the wall.

"There's something else, isn't there?"

His head shot up, eyes wide. 

"No!" He sighed. "Yes. Yes, there is."

"Want to talk about it?"

Shiro was looking at him just like he had when they'd both been back in the Garrison, Keith finding it difficult still to adapt into Human society and most places finding him too much trouble to bother with - and Shiro, this promising instructor, had taken a shine to him, saying he had  _potential._

Just because Shiro hadn't known what he was talking about back then, that he'd already achieved way more than most of these people could even dream of, didn't make it feel any less important.

"It's... Voltron."

"I see. Go on."

"What if someone gets inside my head, Shiro? What if that's something we're gonna be able to do? Even by accident.  _Especially_ by accident. I can't afford for that to happen! I'm- I'm  _Galra._ If anyone else finds out - if the  _princess_ finds out - this'll all be over. Whether the Red Lion chose me or not."

"Keith?  _Keith._ Breathe. Think about what you're saying. None of that is going to happen. You're part of this team now."

"And if someone figures out I'm not exactly who - or rather,  _what -_ I say I am?"

"Then we cross that bridge when we get to it. But..."

"Yes?"

"Try to have some faith. They're just as lost and confused as you are right now. If anything, I'd say that counts for the Princess and Coran as well, given they're out of their own time. If you give them a chance to trust  _you_ , then they might surprise you."

Keith sighed again, running a hand over his face.

"I just... I hope it's as simple as that."

Shiro let out a huff of laughter, making him blink, wondering what he'd said that was funny.

"Trust is hardly ever simple, Keith. We can just hope to make it work out in the end. Now, go get some rest. You look like you need it."

It took a while for him to sleep even so, in unfamiliar surroundings and with unfamiliar people. He found himself staring the ticks away at his human reflection in his Marmoran blade, the symbol on the hilt a now damning reminder of not just what they stood for, but  _home_ , and what he was inevitably cut off from.


	3. Chapter 3

He had to admit - keeping watch over a hangar of Galra drones and fighters that weren't going anywhere anytime soon as long as they did what they'd come here for and Lance's plan actually  _worked_ , was pretty damn boring. 

He could work with boring, though. He'd essentially relearned the baby-step basics of how to fly from the ground up, and he wouldn't have even  _bothered_ if he couldn't be patient. So maybe it could be improved on, but-

More beeps and assorted other noises from the system that suggested that all Lance was doing was hitting a bunch of random buttons just to see if it did anything at all. 

"What," he asked, losing that tightly held grip on his precious patience, "do you even think you're  _doing_ over there?"

 _Bzzt_ , went the console again, refusing... whatever it was that Lance had apparently tried.

"I don't know what I'm doing here," Keith rolled his eyes.  _Well, that part's obvious._ "It's all Galra gibberish."

He blinked.  _Oh, yeah, I'd forgotten about that. I guess the tables have turned since being on Earth._

"Well, of course it is. What, you think they'd just put everything in some kind of Galactic Basic? It's not like we can understand anything on the Castle either. That's all in Altean." Nevertheless, he started moving over toward the console and Lance, trying to not make himself an obvious target if he was spotted from the outside. "Here, let me have a look. Before it starts thinking you're an escaped Balmeran or something," he added under his breath.

"Hey, I heard that!" Lance, now affronted, started poking the air in front of his face. 

 _Well, that controls the air con, I think this one's got something to do with the tannoy, that one there's_ _connected to the- oh. Of course it was the big one at the top all along. Of course it was._

"Keith, what did you mean? Was that you being serious, or you trying to have me on, because right now we don't have time for-"

He put his hand on the print, finding relief in the fact that the hangar doors immediately started to close, but Lance kept on his ramble of trying to figure out where the insult had been.

"I wasn't trying to- I was being serious, all right? The Empire doesn't let anyone other than Galra into their ranks, so they make sure their equipment is bio-locked, so prisoners and non-Galran rebels can't-"

He cut himself off, his head turning slowly, eyes locked onto his hand, which was still resting against the console. The hangar doors were still obediently closing.

Lance was staring at him, eyes wide and confused. 

_"Shit."_

Their Blue Paladin might be a dumbass sometimes, but he wasn't  _stupid._ He'd even just proven that by coming up with this plan in the first place.

 _C'mon, breathe. Let's just deal with one thing at a time._ As long as Lance didn't choose to broadcast what'd just happened to the rest of the team over their comms and leave him there. It wasn't as though there was even all that much love between them in the first place. He'd  _tried_ \- really, he  _had_. 

But he couldn't make something work. He couldn't  _make_ people  _trust him_.

 _"They're drawing us into an ambush, but we don't have a choice if we want to save Shay."_  Their helmets suddenly started carrying Shiro's voice.  _"We have to follow. Lance, Keith - get to the core. I think we're gonna need everyone together to get through this firefight."_

Keith held his breath, watching as the doors closed the last few inches or so.

"Copy that, we're on our way!"

And they were alone again - at least, as much as they ever were on a mission. The others were only a shout away, but given they weren't trying to get through, they weren't listening.

"Lance, I-"

"Later, all right?" And there's something in Lance's eyes that says that there will  _be_ a later. That he isn't just dropping the issue. "Right now we've got a Balmera to save."

He nods mutely, not fully trusting his voice, and slashes at the console - both to make sure that nothing can re-open the doors while they're gone, and to get rid of the one piece of damning evidence he can actually  _destroy_.

...

He keeps expecting it to come up.

There's the fact that Galrans are the ones to blame for the state the Balmera is in, the doors that trap them in, forming Voltron and having the worry in the back of his mind that Lance is going to not want to when he knows that someone on the team is  _Galran_. 

None of it happens. It reaches the point where they're back on the castle and having a meal of food goo, and  _still_ Lance hasn't said anything.

...

Allura and Coran say that the repairs to the castle should take a few more days at least before it's safe to do more than just float at a pace he could've matched the speeder he'd built himself back home, and although that's great for being able to wind down after the non-stop stress of the past few  _days_ , Keith also wishes that things would happen faster.

Whenever he sees Lance in the corridors, or at mealtimes, or in training, he just remembers the look on his face when he'd realised what Keith had been saying, and the fact that at some point, it was going to come back to bite him.

He saw Lance meeting his eyes, saying _L_ _ater_ , _all right?_  as his eyes closed before he could sleep, and woke up from nightmares where 'later' had been forgotten, everyone knowing already and talking about him as if he weren't even there as they made plans to head a raid on a Galran base - the base of the  _Blade_ \- his  _home-_

He throws off his sheets, gasping for air, just about able to remind himself that even it wasn't true of any of the others, Shiro at least knew of the Blade, and that Keith had  _family_ there. Shiro wouldn't let that sort of thing happen.

...

He's fighting the gladiator again, the rhythm of movement and the need to react and not think being enough to force himself to focus on something other than his latest mess up. Fighting was like that - you couldn't think of anything else, or the next thing you knew, you'd be flat on the floor. 

It was a lot like the way they formed Voltron, really - they had to be focused. In the moment. 

He rushed again, bayard clashing against the blade the gladiator wielded and sending shockwaves up his arm from the angle he'd been hit at, but a few more strikes and he's run the thing through, watching as it dissolves back into the training room floor.

The  _last_ thing he expects to see when he looks up is Lance, leaning against the wall by the door, watching him with an unreadable expression.

He can't quite stop a sigh from escaping as he dismisses his weapon - the last thing he wants is anyone thinking he needs to be  _armed_ to have a discussion like this.

"So. Um. I guess now's 'later', then."

Lance blinks, owlishly. 

"Huh? Later what? I don't- oh.  _Oh._ That later."

"Don't tell me you  _forgot-"_

"I'll have you know I did  _not_ forget! Absolutely not! There was just a lot going on and then we had to be Voltron and save the day and then-" Lance deflated. "Okay, fine, so I forgot a  _bit_. Sometimes. But it's not like you can blame me. And the rest of the time, I was trying to figure out when would be a good time to ask something like, 'Oh, hi, Keith, about that one time you started saying weird things like how  _maybe you're an alien_.' Yeah.  _That_ would've gone down  _really_ well."

It was as though something had been out of balance, and now the world had righted itself. It was as though the tension from the past few days, the paranoia, the feeling of impending  _doom_ , had washed away. 

"You know, for a while there, I'd forgotten I was dealing with  _you_."

"I have a distinct feeling you weren't thinking nice thoughts about me," Lance says with a hunch of his shoulders, expression caught somewhere between attempting to imitate a kicked puppy and being stern, and not succeeding too well at either, "and to be honest, I'm insulted, Keith. Deeply insulted. What did you think I was gonna do, tell Shiro and have you kicked off the team?"

"Shiro.... Shiro already knows."

"And you somehow decided it was a great idea to, what? Not tell anyone else? Or am I the last to know. Like with pidge being a girl."

Keith blinked. Shook his head. 

_No, this is definitely Lance I'm dealing with here._

"What are you even  _on_ about? Shiro, and now  _you_ \- you're the  _only ones who know_. I just spent several days not knowing what you were going to do with that, so if you could  _maybe_ not start broadcasting it to everyone else on the castle _now?!"_

Lance's eyes grew wide at something he'd said - or maybe all of it, how was he to know what went on in Lance's head - and this time, the puppy dog impression was a fair bit more spot on, though at least he also looked less kicked this time, too.

"Really?  _No one_ else knows?"

"Well, would  _you_ like to be the one who tells Allura?" He shifted his feet, his arms coming up to cross in front of his chest defensively at the various memories that said 'telling Allura is a  _bad idea_ ' that kept coming back to haunt him. "Or Pidge. Who had her family taken from her. Or Hunk - you _saw_ what he was like heading back to the Balmera. We all did. For that matter,  _you_ nearly  _died_ not all that long ago because of the Empire, I don't get why you're not more-"

Lance held his hands up, stopping him mid-sentence.

"Okay, okay - I get it. You're freaking out. And, uh, not entirely without reason. Allura's scary. Actually, yeah, so's Pidge. So maybe - just  _maybe_ \- you have a point. A bit of a point. But-"

 _"Guys."_ Pidge's voice carried over from the control area overlooking the training room, making them both jump. Keith thought that either his heart had just stopped for a moment or he was going to puke.  _"Although it's great seeing you not at each others' throats, I need to run some experiments on the tech here and if you're done training or whatever it is you're doing, you're in my way."_

_..._

Things are more or less back to normal by the time they're all together again to eat in what's something like an approximation of evening in Earth time. Or, to be more precise, what was becoming more and more like a mix between Earth and Altean time slices, which- it was definitely weird realising that what he'd always thought was a universal  _Galran_ system was actually  _Altean_. 

Then again, maybe not so weird. Zarkon  _had_ warped just about everything else, after all.

"Is it just me," Hunk says at the table between bites, "or is Keith looking better today?"

He blinks, spoon halfway to his mouth, wondering where  _that_ had come from.

"Y'know, you're right. He  _does_ look less jumpy today."

"I- I haven't been  _jumpy._ "

Hunk puts an arm around his shoulders, only making him more confused, not less. He tried to send a look at Lance to see if he had any idea what was going on, but Lance either didn't notice, or wasn't being cooperative. 

"Dude, it's okay. We've all been on edge since we nearly got blown to pieces by weird laser lizard thing that wouldn't die. It'd be weird if we weren't."

 _Oh,_ he realised.  _That's what they think it is._

"Uh, yeah. Thanks. It... was something like that. Definitely."

...

"So." Lance is sat cross-legged on his bed, with his shoes off and leaning forward with his elbows on his knees to look up at Keith, who's leaning against the wall opposite him, arms crossed and frowning. "Let me get this straight. Not only are you not human, but you're  _Galran_ ," he says, starting to tick off the points on his fingers, "you belong to some super secret rebel cell, and you were sent to Earth on a mission. A mission involved you and Blue. And other than me, Shiro's the _only one who knows._  Is that everything?"

Keith sighed. He hadn't  _wanted_ to give up all of that information so easily, and especially not to  _Lance_ , but somehow Lance was good at dragging things out of him - piece by piece if he had to, apparently - and picking up on slips of the tongue that  _weren't_ as obvious as the one he'd made back on the Balmera.

"Pretty much, yeah."

Silence falls for a few precious, awkward ticks, and then Lance shrugs, looking away slightly. 

"I guess that explains how you knew how to find Blue back then out in the desert, huh. You'd already had some kind of connection."

He shifts against the wall, frown turning into one of confusion. 

"I knew where Blue was because I'd  _landed her there_ , remember? Yeah, there was a  _bit_ of something left, but mainly I was just playing it up to get you guys to follow me. And hoping we could find a way back in. Because of the rockfall."

"Oh, _right_." Keith can't help but roll his eyes with a smile at the slow realisation of the obvious. "Well, uh..."

Lance scratches at his head, looking serious for a change, which actually makes him worry, for a moment.

"What?"

"Just - thanks, I guess?" Keith blinks, and Lance continues. "I mean, apparently if you weren't there and you hadn't done what you did, we wouldn't have Blue. Blue and I would never have _met_. So, thanks. For saving and looking after her."

This time it was his turn to shrug and look away, although partly it was to hide the fact that his face was turning red.

"I was just doing my job. There's no reason to thank me for  _that_."

"Psh. That's what  _you_ say. I'm entitled to my own opinion. And my opinion right now says 'thank you'."

"Oh. Well, uh... you're welcome?"

"That's better," Lance says, giving him a half-smile, half-smirk that he finds himself far more comfortable with than the serious look from before. It was closer to what he'd come to think of as 'normal' without even realising.

...

As much as it is a relief to not have to hide himself from even just one other person, it causes as many problems as it fixes. Though given how easily he'd slipped up with Lance, things could have gone much worse than walking in on Pidge as she's trying to decode some of the logs she'd been able to download from the ship she and Shiro had investigated back on Arus.  

"Pidge, what... what are you doing."

"Trying to figure out where they keep the logs on prisoners. Given I haven't exactly had a lot of free time to do this since grabbing what we could off the system. First there was that Myzax thing, then there was Sendak and Lance nearly getting killed, and then there was the Balmera, and then there was Coran getting held hostage. Or should I say,  _pretending_ to be held hostage. Not that I don't appreciate the training, or saving people, but I really don't have time for  _fake_ hostage situations when my family's still out there."

He sighed, watching as she continued to work on the glowing computer screen, hunched over it. He'd figured that much out. He'd known what her personal mission was at the same time as she'd told Shiro, after all, and it wasn't like  _any_ of them'd had much of a real rest.

"No, I meant... what  _is_ that. You're not going to get far learning about prisoners if you're looking at the captain's log."

Pidge blinked, turned to look up at him from where he'd angled himself in order to point at the screen, and then blinked again.

"How... do you  _know_ that? I don't know that. How do  _you_ know that?"

He stared, until looking back at the screen, silently hoping for something he could use as an excuse.

"Uh. That word there? It keeps repeating. Which probably means it's either important or common. But because it's literally all over this page, and it's usually followed only by specific words, so..." She was still staring at him, which if he was honest, was making him worried. Not that he could admit that. But she  _was_ the smartest one of the entire group. He shrugged awkwardly, backing away. "What can I say? I've had to be good at picking up languages."

_Like, for instance, picking up that humans have more than one to begin_ _with, and figuring out how to sound fluent in English, and then realising I'd accidentally started learning Korean instead at one point._

That, as well as the way he'd modelled his glamour after a ridiculous amount of trial and error, had left a lot of people finding it easy to assume he was some kind of mixed race. He hadn't exactly said he wasn't, thinking that anything that many people made up about his past was probably more believable than anything he could come up with on his own.

"Keith. Please. You have to help me. I can create a program to translate and even hack into the Galran servers, but if you help me, I can finish it in like,  _half the time._ And it'll be even better."

He hesitates. Unsure if this is a good idea, because if he says something wrong - hell, if he recognises something he really shouldn't if he's just finding  _patterns_ \- then it could spell trouble. A lot of trouble.

But she's looking at him like  _that_ , and he's reminded again of the kids he'd grown up with who'd lost parents and siblings to the Empire themselves. The way  _he'd_ been, when his father had gone the first time. When  _Shiro_ had disappeared.

He sighed, and collapsed onto the sofa next to her.

"All right, fine. Count me in."

...

He's woken up a few quintants later in the middle of the night by the unmistakable sound of someone being in his room, and it's reflex that has him reaching under his pillow for his Marmora blade, ready to defend himself just on the off chance that they had an intruder.

It isn't an intruder, he realises when his eyes adjust to the lights that have come on. It's just Lance. 

Lance, still in the Altean pyjamas and Blue Lion slippers he wore to bed. 

Keith groaned. And put his knife away again.

"Sorry," he hears Lance mumble out. "Couldn't sleep."

"What, so you decided you'd interrupt  _my_ sleep? Gee. Thanks." It wasn't like he could tell Lance to just  _go away_ , though. Tempting though it might be. "What's wrong."

Half sat up on one elbow, he watches blearily as Lance slides softly onto the floor, eyes on the ceiling. 

"Have you ever wondered what it'd be like if you just - disappeared? If everything'd be the same, but you're not there?"

_Okay, maybe that's more than a little concerning. Especially coming from Lance._

"People go missing all the time, and they're always missed  _somehow_ , Lance. I knew people back at base. They'd go, and sometimes they never came back at all, and life went on, and... yeah, I miss 'em sometimes. What brought this on, anyway?"

He sees an odd shoulder movement that he can only assume is still meant to be a shrug.

"Coran didn't even notice I was gone when I got stuck in that freezing cold cryotube. He was all like, 'why did you want to go and do  _that_ for, that wasn't very smart of you'." Lance's imitation of Coran was tempered somewhat by his obviously bleak mood, and the fact that he was probably still half asleep himself. "And then I was nearly sucked out into space. It made me think."

"It's the middle of the night, Lance. No one thinks straight in the middle of the night."

He had a feeling he should probably say something else, but it's hard enough just focusing on staying awake, let alone trying to figure out what to say when he doesn't even think he'd know how to deal with the situation when he _wasn't_ half asleep.

Time ticks on. He starts to wonder if Lance is planning on sleeping on his floor, which isn't a very Lance thing to do.

"Keith?"

"Yeah?"

It came out more as a half-hearted mumble than he'd been aiming at, but then he had been just on the cusp of drifting off again.

"Be honest with me here. D'you think I'm not cut out for Blue and she just took pity on me or something? If anyone'd know, you would. Right?"

His first thought was  _is he joking right now?_ but then, remembering everything that'd happened in the last.... however long it'd been since Lance had woken him up, he realised that no, Lance probably  _wasn't_ joking.

"Lance," he said flatly, staring at nothing in particular, "your Lion went on a half-hour long tangent about stars while we were barely evading the empire. You're made for each other. And no, I'm not being sarcastic, before you accuse me of that. No, no. I'm pretty sure that if she took pity on anyone, it was me."

There's a pause, about the span of just a couple of breaths, and then he hears Lance snort, clearly amused.

"You're  _kidding_."

"No, I'm not. You remember the rockfall I told you about? I shouted. At rocks. I think I stubbed my toe. It hurt. I somehow don't think she'd let  _you_ shout at rocks."

Lance starts laughing. After so long hearing him being so damn serious, it was a amazing sound, even if it was one he hadn't thought he'd ever miss that much.

"I'm- I'm going to  _remember_ that one, you know," Lance manages to get out, still laughing.

Keith groans, unsure how much he regretted his decision to share that particular bit of information just yet.

"Go back to sleep, Lance. And go back to your own room, because you aren't staying in mine."

He's back to drifting off before Lance is gone, not even hearing the door slide shut behind him.

...

There's a sort of closeness that comes from sharing secrets with people, he comes to realise. It's similar to what things were like with the Blade, but different at the same time.

With the Blade, no one really had a choice - everyone all knew that if you let something slip, then hundreds - even  _thousands_ , or more - lives were at stake. Everyone was trusted. But they  _had_ to be. 

With his team now, though... it was starting to feel, bit by bit, more possible that he could open up like this to the rest of them. Maybe not soon. Maybe not now. The idea still scared him, if he was honest with himself. 

But, one by one, quintant by quintant, it was getting increasingly more a matter of  _maybe_ instead of  _if_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made reference at one point to the events shown in the first volume of the comic, which by that point have definitely already happened. The storyline of the comic doesn't really change that much even with all the changes here, though.


End file.
